Strand treating apparatus and method



April 25, 1933. H. w. BROWN.

STRAND TREATING APPARATUS AND METHOD original Filed March 7, 1929latented Apr. 25, 1933 UNITED STA-TES PATENT OFFICE HOBATIO W, BROWN, OFCONCORD, MASSACUSETTS, ASSIGNOB T BEMIS INDUSTRIES, INCORPORATED, OFBOSTON; MASSACHUSETTS, A. CORPORATION OF DELAWARE STRAND TREATING-APPARATUS METHOD Original application filed March 7, 1929, *Serial No.345,077. Divided and this application led September 4 1930.

This invention relates to an apparatus andA method for treating strandsof material whichoriginally is in the form of numerous elongated entanled brous components, and more particular y for loosening thesecomponents and forming the same into a lightly luffed. substantiallyuniform mass or mat.

This application is a division of copending' application Serial No.345,077, filed March In accordance with the present invention,

any desired flexible strands .or fibers which are typically elongate andwhich originally may be loosened and lightly iiufed to pro-' vide auniform mat or mass that may be submay be rather rmly compacted and en.

tangled or formed into irregular bunches jected to any suitablesucceeding operations or use. For example, this arrangement 1sparticularly advantageous in preparing excelsior, i. e. elongateiiexible more or less curling strands of wood, so that the excelsior maybe readily manufactured into artificial lumber comprising reticulatedstrands bound by and coated with a suitable cementitious and protectiveagent, such as a' magnesite cement. While the process and apparatusdisclosed herein is broadly applicable4 to employment for the looseningand uniform distributing of strands of practically any character, forpurposes ofconvenience of illustration and description,`the treatment ofexcelsior strands will be particularly referred to hereinafter. 'lhesestrands are ordinarily received in quite closely compacted bundles orbales,- and preferably are first somewhat loosened and may then be cut;the bunches or entangled masses of the ex- Serial No. 479,650.

separates the entangled mass and uniformly distributes the elongatestrands of fibrous components in a suitable-collecting passage, such forexample as achute which supplies theloose mass of material to areceiving belt or any suitable receiving means;

In the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 is a side elevational View, somewhat i diagrammatic in characterand with arts in section, showing the arrangement o my preferred strandiung apparatus; v Fig. 2 is an elevational View of a-portion of thisapparatus including the air. nozzle and related parts; and

Fig. 3 `isa top view of the air nozzle and related parts.

The material which is to be loosened and lufed ordinarily may bereceived in a: more or less closely compacted' and'entangled orbunchedlcondition, forfexample, bales of 7o excelsior may be brokenopen, and the Y'excelsior fed by .hand to the machine in irregularmasses of varying sizes. Such material is designated ,in the accompanyindrawing by the numeral! 1, being disposed upon a table 1%, the edge ofwhich is juxtaposed to the bite of a pair of rolls 3 and 4, one or bothof which may be provided withv suitable feed projections 5 in order todev liver the material from table 1a to cutting mechanism, designated ingeneral by. the numeral 6. This cutting mechanism is particular'lydesirable when the strands have a .comparatively great length, andindividual strands, being relatively curly, tend to have severalconvolutions and accordingly have become very much entangled withA eachother. The cuttin mechanism 6 is designed. to cut such stran ed materialinto shorter portions; for example, an average length of from two to sixinches has beenpfound commercially satisfactory for the .manufa/ ture`of excelsior lumber. The cutting mechanism -is provided with a rotor 7-having segmental knives 8 that are adapted to cooperate with a fixedvertically disposed plate 10 in shearing the strands received from therolls 3 and 4.

. As indicated by the 1, the knives 8 rotate so that they tend to curvedarrow in Fig.

cast the severed strands upwardl against a. guide plate 13 which isexten ed overa lower supporting plate 13". Accordingly continued rotarymovement of the cutter 7 causes the material to be fed between plates 13and 13El onto a suitable receiving belt 14, which, as'shown, may besubstantially horizontally disposed. The excelsior strands received bythe belt 14 are still in a more or less irregularly bunched andentangled condition, and a feed roller 25 over the end of belt 14cooperates with the latter in feeding this material to a picker. Thismechanism may include a relatively large roll 17 having radiallydisposed teeth 19 projecting therefrom and adapted to engage thesomewhat bunched strands as they pass from the roll 25 and belt 14. Acover plate 18 may be disposed over the roll 17 and may carry a comb 18awhich cooperates with the" teeth 19 in loosening thebunched andentangled strands.

From the picker the loosened material which now is in a looselyentangled, nonuniformly distributed condition, falls into the upper endof an inclined passageway or Y chute 35. This portion of the mechanismis refera'bly provided with suitable means,

urther to separate and to distribute the fibrous material evenly so thata substantially uniform looseor liufed mat is provided.

The preferred arrangement for attaining this desirable result comprisesa movable air nozzle 27 which has its open end projecting downwardlyinto the upper end of an inclined chute 35 and which is supplied withcompressed air through a flexible duct 28 such as an air hose, which maybe connected to any suitable source of air supply. Means is preferablyprovided tomove the nozzle transversely of the chute 35, this meansbeing illustrated more in detail in Figs. 2 and 3. For this purpose theaxle 81 of roll 17 may be provided with an eccentric pin or crank 83which is pivotally connected to a link 84. The opposite end lof link 84is articulated to one arm` of a bell crank 85, the other arm of which isarticulatedto a; transverse rod 86, this rod being disposed transverselyof and somewhat above the upper end of chute 25. The ends of the rod 86preferably are slidably received in'suit` able supporting elements orbearings 50. The intermediate part of rod 86 is pivotally connected, asdesignated by numeral-'51, to a nozzle holder 87, the end of which ispivotally connected to a fixed support, for ex,

ample an extension of the curved plate 18 over the picker. It is thusevident that rotation of the picker 17 causes the transverse movement ofthe nozzle 27 and accordingly air under pressure may be repeatedlysupplied to each portion of the openI end of the chute 35. .v

In the operation of apparatus of this character the stranded materialmay be received on the table 1a ina more or less firmly entangled,closely bunched condition, for example Athe condition of excelsior whentaken out of the conventional. bale, and may then be suiicientlyseparated by hand to be. fed between the rollers 3 and 4 to the cuttingmeans 6. This means is somewhat effective lin breaking up the bunchedstrands and in causing the average length-of the strands to be much lessthan when originally received. Thus the occurrence of typically long,convoluted or extremely curly strands is avoided as 'the material leavesthe cutter 6 and passes over the belt 14 to the picker. The latterincludes the toothed roller 17 and comb 18' which cooperate in openingup the smaller somewhat loosened bunches of stranded material, so thatas the same are supplied to the chute 35 they may be readily acted uponand substantially completely separated by the action of the oscillatinghigh velocity concentrated air jet emitted from the nozzle 27. Themovement ofthis nozzle transversely of thev chute is advantageous incausing the substantially uniformv distribution of the fibrous materialthroughout the chute. For example, the strands directly in front of thenozzle are picked up and hurled against adjoining strands so that theloosened individual strands readily find their way to the regions wherethe stranded material is less densely distributed, whereby asubstantially uniform distribution of the strands results. Thus thestrandedmaterial passing from the chute 35 to any suitable receivingmeans, such as a belt not s hown, in the form of alightly andsubstantially uniformly tled mat in which the strands are not typicallyentangled, but lightly engage one another. I claim:

prising an elongate strand receiving duct means to deliver strands to anopen end o the duct, and an air nozzle inde endent of said deliverymeans, said nozzle eing movable across the open end of the duct andarranged to emit a high velocity concentrated air jet into the open endof .the duct, at an angle to the plane of travel of said strand materialthrough. said duct, and driving means to move the air nozzle to and frotransversely of the duct. 2. Apparatus of the class described,comprising an elongate strand receiving duct means to deliver strands toan open end o the duct, and an airr nozzle inde endent of said deliverymeans, said nozzle eing movable across the open end of the duct andarranged to emit a high velocityconcentrated air jet into the open endof the duct, at an an le to the plane of travel of said strand materialthrough said duct, and driving .1. Apparatus of the class described,com- 4 amano l means to move the airnozzle to and fr() transversely ofthe duc said driving means being operable in sync nized relation to thestrand deliveringmeans. 3. Apparatus of the class described, comrising astrand picker a strand receiving uct havingan open en arranged toreceive loosened strands `from the picker, and an air nozzlemovableacross the end of the duct and arranged to emit a hi h' velocityconcentrated. air 'et vinto said uct at an angle to the lane o travel ofsaid strand material thro said duct. 4. method of treating elongateentanled strand material to form a loosely ued mat of ubrfornlllydistributed strands disposed' in su anti y none tang e engagement, whichmethod compilises lfeeding the entangled strand material into anelongate passage, and concomitantly subjecting the moving mass of strandmaterial to the action of an oscillatingsth velocity coneentrated airjet which es said material at-an angle to its lane of travel throughsaid passage, where y the entangled strands are se arated and uniformlydistributed throng out said p w- Si ed by me at Boston, Massachusetts,this tlxdayofAu` ,1930. HO TIO -W. BROWN.

